Framed by stolen frames

Huỳnh Văn Út was not dreaming, however. He saw it piled up right in front of his eyes. All 40 tonnes of it, worth around VNĐ10 billion (around US$450,000).

It just sat there, waiting to be taken.

And take it he did, hiring five 15-tonne lorries to do so.

As a temporary hire of the Nguyễn Bình Company, a HCM-City based event-organising firm, he had helped install and uninstall all the metal frames used to make stages and other props for a Spring Fair in the city, and they were all stacked up in a corner of the Nguyễn Tất Thành Square in Bình Thuận Province’s Phan Thiết City, to be taken to HCM City later.

Út facilitated the transfer, without the owners’ knowledge, last Thursday night.

Once the long arm of the law caught up with him, Út confessed that his plan was to sell the frames as scrap in HCM City. Now that his plan has been scrapped, Út can reflect at leisure on the fate of being framed by stolen frames.